Metal Gear Survive: 10 Brutally Honest Early Impressions You Need To Know

10. The FOX Engine Still Feels And Looks Amazing

An overlooked casualty in the Konami and Kojima fallout was the fate of the FOX Engine. Worked on for years in preparation of MGS V, the engine was one of the most impressive and robust systems of its time, allowing The Phantom Pain to look astonishing even on last-gen systems while making for some of the smoothest gameplay of the generation so far.

Because it's such a flawless foundation to build on then, Survive was essentially guaranteed a baseline of quality that's resulted in a final game that runs well and looks relatively pretty under the right circumstances. Consequently then, the title feels more polished and inherently more functional than other botched multiplayer spin-offs like Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Still, all of these assets and features were pretty much brought over from the previous game, and while the release does refine a few of them and introduce a couple new mechanics, there's no getting away from the fact that it would have been incredibly difficult to make a game on this engine that wasn't responsive and mechanically sound.